ON ROARING. 
3 
long as the air passes in a slow and uniform stream through the 
pipe, as in ordinary breathing, no noise is heard nor inconvenience 
felt by the animal; but the moment any rush of air is made, the 
contraction or impediment, whatever it be, opposing this augmen¬ 
tation, roaring is produced by the vibration of the air against the 
obstructing body. So long as a horse continues at rest, or goes 
but at a foot’s pace, or even but trots, although he be a roarer, no 
roaring, probably, is heard—no person would discover his imper¬ 
fection: gallop him, however, and particularly up hill, and press 
him hard, and, as the dealers say, you may hear him in the 
next parish.” Heavy draft, in harness, will have the same effect. 
And so will any sudden act of exertion, such as a leap, or jump, 
or gambol of any sort. Even fright, or sudden alarm of any kind, 
will elicit the noise. In fine, whatever induces vehement breath¬ 
ing will be apt to make the roarer disclose his imperfection. 
Is IT A Sound of Inspiration or Expiration, or of both 1 
—Ordinarily, it is only in inspiration that the sound is h,eard. 
Under circumstances of great distress, however, as when a horse 
is gallopped to bursting, and especially should it happen that he is 
one of the worst class of roarers, the sound is audible enough in 
expiration as well as inspiration. 
The Tests of Roaring suggest themselves from a knowledge 
of the fact, that a horse must be made to breathe with a sudden 
effort, or else experience a degree of labour and difficulty in 
drawing ,his breath, before the sound can be elicited. For the 
purpose of producing this ^dden respiratory effort, our common 
practice is to make a feint or threat to strike the animal, which 
rarely fails, should he have the disorder, to call forth, involunta¬ 
rily, the roar, or rather grunt, and to confirm our unfavourable 
suspicions. Should the animal not be a roarer, the alarm we 
create occasions no sound whatever in the breath. Next, we 
cough the horse. The protracted grunting or groaning of the cough 
being to an experienced ear equally characteristic, may, in con¬ 
junction with the former test, be received as quite satisfactory. 
I regret, however, to be compelled to add, that the absence of these 
summary tests will not, in all cases, bear us out in pronouncing 
the horse not to be a roarer. In a case of this kind, my common 
observation to the gentleman whose horse I may be examining, 
is, “ I do not find your horse roars either on being struck or 
coughed; but you must not take this remark to imply that he is 
‘ perfectly sound’ in his wind. In order to satisfy yourself of that 
you must give him a ‘ splitting gallop,’ and, if practicable, on soft 
ground or up hill. This is your only safeguard against minor im¬ 
perfections in wind.” I have heard Mr. Sewell, the present Profes¬ 
sor, say, that tlic best trial wo can subject draft-horses suspected 
